13th June - 7.44 pm
This aerial ain't falling down.....brickwork was a little soft so we put up 2 pairs of T & K brackets...good for 100 years...
13th June - 7.37 pm
Wow....how the other half live...This has to be the prettiest place I worked at... and this was just the driveway lol....
16th March - 1.09 pm
Previous company sited the sky dish under the overhang of the roof and could only get 25% signal.Every time it rained or was cloudy the customer lost her picture. Solution.... fit two 6" galvenised wall brackets to the porch frame and move dish...Now they have 99% signal and my customer is over the moon. Hey, thats what happens when you call in the experts........and thanks for the buisquits........YUMMY....
16th March - 1.04 pm
Only the second time in 3 years I've used these 36" T & K Brackets...Both times on jobs in Milton Keynes....grrrrr
9th January - 7.50 am
This customer has sky fit a dish and they fixed it to the plastic facia. Every time the wind blew the plastic was creaking. When i took the dish down they were left with ten holes in the PVC. OH well, pay peanuts get monkeys....
4th January - 10.13 am
You could'nt make it up... An aerial rigger from Aerial Force installed the customers own aerial and fitted it to the pole upside down so when it rained the water got trapped in the dipole meaning a new aerial after less then 2 years... Good job the so called aerial engineer isnt a gas engineer lol......
4th January - 10.07 am
No where to put this aerial without the additional cost of large brackets and tall pole so out customer was very happy to let us improvise and site the aerial in the gap in the roof....
6th November - 7.55 am
Just found out that Virgin are switching off the analogue service it provides to approx 22,000 homes in Milton Keynes on the 28th Nov.....4 weeks before Xmas...great news for us but bad timing on Virgins behalf.... This aerial installation is one of the first as a result.... High gain aerial on heavy duty fixings.... very smart and tidy.... ladders fully extended, could just about reach... give me a bungalow any day lol....
6th November - 7.51 am
Beautiful old house in Paulerspury near Towcester.... I love working on these old houses..this place was 300 years old....
6th November - 7.49 am
Went to a new build in Silsoe and the customer wanted the aerial hidden from the front of the house so we put the aerial on the side elevation on a very small pole...very discreet...!!!!!!
16th October - 8.00 am
Who employs these idiots to put up a tv aerial..?? Customer had paid £50 for a completely over the top crap aerial from Maplins and the cowboy they recommended to install it actually fitted the dipole to the aerial upside down so water got inside and just rotted it... unbelievable..!!!!
16th October - 7.52 am
For the sake of a little bit of tape this repair could have been avoided... if the person putting up the aerial had of taped the coax down to the boom then water ingress would not have happened... As it was the water got into the dipole then worked its way down to a masthead amplifier meaning aerial and amp had to be replaced....
9th October - 7.19 pm
Did a quote for this job a month ago...customer dont get home from work until 5.30pm so I got there 30 mins early and erected the aerial on the gable then fed the cable into the loft...just had to wait 5 mins for customer to get home so i could access the loft then connect to a distribution amplifier.... finished and home by 6....
9th October - 7.14 pm
Lady we did aerial for previously called us out as she could'nt get a picture on the TV... As soon as I put the TV on I saw she was in the old analogue mode... I told her to press the "SOURCE" button on the remote to get to digital... she started pressing a button but the wrong one...i said "below it" ....she started " BLOWING " the remote lol....she thought i meant blow the remote haha..."Some mothers do ave em lol".....
9th October - 7.03 pm
Bloody trees....customer just about given up on watching Freesat but we managed to get a signal by attaching the dish to the pole on the chimney....not sure where we go from there in a few years time if the trees grow quickly....chainsaw will be the answer...
7th October - 8.45 am
So here I am a week after my working at heights course standing on a chimney in Stony Stratford to fit the new aerial... next door's house was to close to reach from the side and re-fitting the brackets to the inside of the chimney would have incurred unnecessary costs...got to be easier ways to make a living lol....
6th October - 8.38 am
My 53rd birthday, a sunday and I'm still there for my customers....was bored sat at home watching tv lol....
What a mess this job was.... pole attached to a pole....can't beleive an experience aerial installer would have done something like that. Updated TV aerial for a Blake high gain wide band aerial with decent heavy duty fixings. Back home in time for my birthday dinner and a nice bottle of Californian Frogs Leap Chardonnay haha.....
1st October - 7.45 am
After 20 years of climbing on roofs I finally have a peice of paper that tells me how to do it safely......
1st October - 7.37 am
Called to repair TV aerial in Houghton Regis... extremely old aerial, probably been there for 40 years..... fitted new TV aerial , pole and lashing wire around the chimney...existing bracket was in good condition as was the masthead amplifier so was able to refit them.... perfect freeview signal to all tv's in the house.
1st October - 7.31 am
Wish all jobs were as easy as this.... customer had a 30 year old aerial and wanted a new high gain aerial on a tall pole... just needed one section of ladder to get on the garage roof then worked at head height... once aerial was up just had to reconnect it to the existing masthead amplifier......no cables to run...yeahhhhhhhh......
26th September - 5.44 pm
Went to look at a faulty tv aerial in Dunstable. Previous company had put in a splitter meant for indoor use on the outside and then a masthead amplifier to boost the signal. Why not use a 2 way masthead to start with. Splitter was corroding from water ingress and customer wanted a high gain aerial. Installed a Blake DMX 10 tv aerial on a 10' mast with an additional wall bracket to support it and the signal was so much better i was able to fit JUST a Fringe 2 way external splitter and still get a strong signal to both TV's. A lot cheaper in the long run and less parts to go wrong....job done....
26th September - 5.20 pm
Called to a job by Imagine Property Developments at a house they scaffolded which blocked the neighbours sky dish. As a way of goodwill they asked me to install a TV aerial for the neighbour so everyone was happy. The cable on the gable end was put in by the builder... I would cable a job that way..its to unsightly.....
22nd September - 12.26 pm
Take a lot of pride in my work...same goes for my vans.... a lot of work goes into designing the interiors and each van has evolved over 20 years to a perfect layout.... everything has a place and its so easy to see when I'm running low on stock...
22nd September - 12.12 pm
Straight forward job of changing dish with a single output LNB to a quad LNB and run a second cable over the roof to the front room. And just as I thought it was so simple I found the battery for the drill was to low to go through the wall and the spare battery was flat...had to drive back home for the charger....GRRRRRRRRRRR.... Previous dish installed by Sky so the usual poor quality job done... Ran new cable down side of black wooden window frames so most of the cable blended in.. nice and tidy with minimal cabling visible.
21st September - 12.20 pm
Call came in late saturday afternoon so drove over to Wing to find an old GP A aerial on Sandy Heath so all i need to do was change for a wide band tv aerial. Put up a new Blake DMX10 wide band aerial on a new 8' mast and 13" chimney cradle bracket... should last 30 - 40 years....Job done.....
20th September - 12.04 pm
Customer booked this job in 3 weeks prior to moving into his new home in Sandhills...signal here is about as weak as it gets... still, with a high gain aerial on a 10' alloy mast the signal is perfectly acceptable for freeview, youview and BT vision.Customer had 3 tv points in the house so fitted an antiference 4 way masthead amplifier and power unit.Job done.
20th September - 7.48 am
Went to look at job in Stewkley... no idea who did the previous aerial work but I would'nt give them a job... so many problems and it took longer to fault find and make repairs than it takes to install an aerial. Existing aerial was on Oxford transmitter and therefore needed an amplifier coz the signal was not good. Amplifier packed up and the power unit burnt out. Ended up putting up a new aerial with a suitable bracket to Sandy Heath and with a good quality signal i was able to use a passive splitter to feed the 3 tv's....and it rained all the way thru the job.. I need a good gortex jacket....
20th September - 7.42 am
Can add a new skill to my list of job's....vine clearing....front of house covered in vines which customer asked me to remove...that took longer than putting up the aerial... that was easy, bracket up, Blake aerial up and cable straight down to the TV.... next problen, tune a original Thomson top up box....what a peice of s**t... they were crap from day one... the customer got it from a charity shop...that sums it up lol....
17th September - 7.37 pm
Duty calls..... went to this job after hours as customer works in the city till after 5.30pm... simple job of putting up a new TV aerial for a BT Vision box and then i offered to drill 2 holes so telephone cable could be run from bedroom to the lounge.. Still raining and it took longer to drill two damn holes thru the engineering bricks than it took to install the tv aerial..... stop volunteering Colin lol......
17th September - 3.07 pm
2nd big job of the day... Recommended by a beautiful young lady to do an installation at her parents house... Typical lady wanted to move the room around and given the size of the house and complications in running cables I recommended installing a seperate tv aerial and sky dish on a chimney that was out of sight. This is a listed building so no dishes are allowed on the front elevation. Put a Blake wide band tv aerial on a 8' alloy mast and a very large 18" chimney brachet for extra strength. Fitted the dish to the same mast and fed new cabling down the side of the house behing a downpipe. Can see where the daughter gets her looks from, and also the yucky cup of tea hahaha...thanks mom....
17th September - 2.56 pm
Two big jobs today....First one was to put up a new TV aerial to feed 5 rooms....had a choice of a smaller aerial and amplify the signal or use a larger aerial and split in to the 3 rooms... my choice is always to split it as all parts are passive so should last 30 - 40 years. Amplifiers last on average about 5 - 10 years and are dearer to replace. So I put a Blake high gain tv aerial on a 10' alloy pole and 12" Galvenised T & K brackets ( all good for at least 30 years ) Fed coax into loft, fitted a 6 way F type splitter and connected up all the cables...job done....
16th September - 4.52 pm
Job 1....Getting chilly in the mornings now...trying to stay in bed past 9am lol...got to this customer at 10am and had to take down two old aerials and put up one new digital tv aerial to feed 3 tv's. Used a Blake DMX 5 on the gable end with a new galvenised bracket and alloy mast...dropped cable from the aerial into the loft, fitted a new 4 way f splitter and connected up all the cables...all worked A OK.. only downside of this job was to hit my left finger with the hammer and if that didnt hurt I went and did it on job 3 as well...talk about being f***ing painful haha...
16th September - 4.44 pm
Job 2 ... 10 min job to retune a digital tv in Wing for a previous customer....some of these modern day tv's are way to complicated for our old folk....charged £5 for my diesel for the callout.... someone has to look after the coffin dodgers lol....
Joke.........
16th September - 4.41 pm
Job 3... 10 minute job, the gardener had cut through a coax cable so just needed to be rejoined with f connectors and sealed with amalgamating tape for a 100% waterproof join.
16th September - 4.23 pm
Job 4.... Installed new tv aerial for a talk talk youview box. Customer fed up with sky high bills from Sky.. The house was one of the pre war prefab stlye homes so only one place to fit the aerial on the gable end wooden facia....If the signal is good then always use a shorter pole so there is more strength in the fixing of the bracket to the facia. Put up a Antiference high gain aerial and run coax to tv.
16th September - 4.20 pm
Job 5.....Straight forward job, change single output amplifier on tv aerial for a antiference 4 way masthead amplifier. Attach second cable and run it to bedroom...set up tv and retune...job done....GOING HOME......
14th September - 12.49 pm
Went out to check an aerial that the government contractors had installed for a 85 year old Polish gentleman... One of the worst jobs I have ever seen...aerial was falling apart, one cable clip every 10ft apart, cable ties fitted to the pole and they didnt even cut off the excess plastic, wall bracket only secured with 2 bolts and they had come loose and finally the reason the signal was no good was because the dipole on the TV aerial had broke in half...
My solution, refit bracket and add a 2nd bracket the same size below the original bracket, fit new Blake aerial on a 10ft heavy duty alloy mast, recplip coax cable every 6 bricks apart....job done, clean and tidy, should last Mr Olszyk about 40 years and gave him a 5 year warranty... And thanks for the coffee......
13th September - 6.06 pm
Nightmare of a job but someone has do to it.... went to previous customer in Luton who ask me to wall mount her TV. We did the TV aerial about 8 years ago and still going strong.... But if it could go wrong it would... Customer had parts missing for the TV...parts missing for the wall bracket and parts missing for the shelves..but 2 and a half hours later I had a very happy bunny customer...job done..... And still bloody raining so lucky this was an indoor job....
13th September - 6.02 pm
Went to look at reception problems for a BT vision box in Milton Keynes.... connected tv aerial cable to my spectrum anylyser and aerial signal was good.... Rebooted BT vision box and all the channels came back... BT vision box was one of the earlier models and a complete piece of junk.... hope their BT Youview set top boxes are going to be more reliable..
And it rain all day grrrrrrrrr.......
12th September - 3.38 pm
Installed sky dish for a freesat hd box. Took down 2 old dishes including a 60cm analogue sky dish which was installed on the ark lol.....ran the shotgun cable around the side of the house and down the corner of the wall to hide the cable next to the downpipes and keep it nice and sightly..nothing worse than looking at cables.....
12th September - 3.25 pm
Nice easy tv aerial installation in Harrold...I love working out in the old villages even though it was a modern style house. Customer had just moved in and there was so many cables in the house...customers dad was there doing all the jobs that dad's do for their kids lol so he said he would strip out all the old cabling that they didnt want.The cabling was very tidy but way over the top.
12th September - 3.15 pm
Installed new tv aerial and DAB aerial on old farmhouse in Soulbury, Beds. The old TV aerial had water in the coax cable which went into an external amplifier. Rejigged the system by putting a modern antiference distribution amplifier in the loft and re-routing all the cables to the loft. 100% waterproof and a lot easier to get to if it ever needs to be replaced.TV aerial and FM aerial now go via the amplifier to every room in the house and the DAB aerial had a new coax cable stright to the tuner. Took 3 hours to do....thought it was going to be a 10 min job...you just never know.....
10th September - 3.00 pm
Called out to Berkhamsted to install a TV aerial on a new build. Thanks to John at Advanced Electrical UK in Ampthill for giving me the work. Much appreciated. Building was fully surrounded with scaffolding which means I dont need to get my ladders off the van but I have to get all the kit up to the chimney through the maze of scaffolding. Firstly went up to fit the 18" galvenised chimney bracket and forgot the bracket. Then when i took the aerial up I forgot the alloy pole. No fun getting old. Got to go back Friday to install a identical TV aerial on the opposite end of the house. Advanced Electrical UK to put in all the cabling and distribution amplifiers.
10th September - 2.42 pm
First job of the day in Woburn was to add 2 TV points into a lounge and kitchen. Existing cable was coming down an external wall so simple job of attaching a 2 way Fringe splitter screwed to the wall and running two cables to each new room. Run the cables down the back of a downpipe to the respective rooms for a clean and tidy finish. Wish all my customers were as pretty as this lady...be a pleasure going to work lol....
7th September - 2.59 pm
Called out to repair sky dish in the posh part of Leighton Buzzard, The Heath..... Dish was mounted to a wooden post that had rotted away at the base. Customer saw a scaffolding company down the road so got a 13' pole which they will concrete 5' into the ground. As a tempory repair I fitted 2 x 6" wall brackets to a fence post and put dish at the top of an 8' alloy pole. Will go back in a weeks time when concrete has set and transfer sky dish to new pole. Worse cup of tea I had all year at this house and I had to drink 2 of them lol.....
7th September - 2.54 pm
Called out to connect kitchen tv to an aerial for freeview. Main TV running off sky so I put up a digital aerial on the gable and fed cable into the loft. Fitted a 2 way splitter and connected up main TV point free of charge. If the customers sky goes down then they have something as a back up. Dropped a cable down from the loft down to the kitchen, tuned in TV. Job done. Wish all job's were as easy as that.
7th September - 8.05 am
Customer texted me to ask for cost of a new TV aerial installation in Gawcott. I texted back and instead of writing Gawcott my iphone said Haw City.....Just happy it was spelt that way haha...dont rely on predictive text to be correct lol....
6th September - 6.53 pm
Called out to check a faulty TV aerial amplifier. Replaced it with a Fringe 4 way low loss external splitter. Fantastic bit of kit. Will last for years. Completely passive so nothing to go wrong with it. Will last years even outdoors.
6th September - 6.43 pm
Installed a new TV aerial above the shops on Newport Pagnell high Street. Ladders were to short to reach the roof where the aerial was fitted so went up via the next doors roof then climbed across. Dont want to have to go up there again so used extreme heavy duty fixings, an 18" galvenised chimney bracket and a Blake DMX 10 wide band TV aerial on a 10' heavy gauge alloy mast. Installed a fringe external low loss splitter, connected up 2 exisitng coax cables and run a new cable to a room on the first floor. Job done.
9th August - 8.48 am
Installed a tv point into a room for a lovely lady who informed me she is registered blind. I told her I look like Elvis Presley. She said she wants my babies. She's 84 lol......
8th August - 10.52 am
Installed this satellite dish at an elderly ladies house in Leighton Buzzard. The next door neightbour would not allow us to attach the brackets to the side of the garage as it would have overhung his property by about 6 inches. Because of the trees we had to get line of sight from where the dish ended up. Tried to get a signal everywhere else but could'nt. So the solution was to attach the brackets to the inside of the garage wall and bring the pole up through the garage roof. We taped over the top of the pole and put lots of waterproof sealant around the base of the pole to stop water getting in. JOB DONE and a very happy customer....
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